Category: India

Paytm, India’s mobile-first financial services platform, has become a household name in the country within a short span. Understanding the potential of Paytm and its reach among 300 million active users, the Singapore Tourism Board (STB) has recently entered into a strategic partnership with Paytm to joint run promotions on its platform to promote Singapore tourism. This deal has made STB the first National Tourism Organisation (NTO) to partner with Paytm. Paytm will be offering up to Rs 2,500 cashback on flight tickets to Singapore booked through the app. The Paytm platform will house a microsite featuring Singapore’s new, inside-out, ... Read more

Picture for representational purpose only With an aim to familiarise popular destinations in Madurai, the Tourism Department of the state is all set to take financially poor students for a one-day trip around favourite spots in Madurai for free. The department will select eligible students from various schools before taking them for the trip. As many as 150 select students will travel on three buses on the tour day. Madurai district collector K Veera Raghava Rao would inaugurate the tour at Tamil Nadu Hotel in Alagarkovil Road. The students would be taken to Alagarkovil, World Tamil Sangam building, Gandhi Museum, ... Read more

Actor Sridevi’s mortal remains are handed over to the relatives and is brought to the airport. The body is expected to reach Mumbai tonight. The post-mortem report, and the forensic report states that the death has been caused due to an accidental drowning, unconsciously inside the bathtub. There was nothing unethical and unusual found out by the authorities and hence had closed the case, said the authorities. A private jet has been arranged by Ambani for the smooth transportation of the body from Dubai. The autopsy report is entirely different from the first statement announced by the family as of ... Read more

Photo Courtesy: indiatv Finally, the tourists/pilgrims who throng the famed Saptashrungi Devi hilltop temple in Nasik, Maharashtra, will be able to hop on India’s first Funicular Trolley from March 4 onwards. The project was announced in January 2010. The trolley will zoom up the 1,400 metres tall Saptashrungi Hills in the picturesque north end of Western Ghats to the temple atop. It will have an elevation of almost 330 feet and will enable pilgrims to reach the top of the hill within three minutes. At present, the pilgrims will take anything between one and two hours to climb the 150 ... Read more

With an aim to promote adventure and snow tourism in Bhaderwah Valley, the Bhadarwah Development Authority (BDA) in collaboration with Jammu Kashmir Tourism Department and Jawahar Institute of Mountaineering (JIM) is planning to organise a week-long training workshop from March 19. Besides being a wonderful destination for leisure and summer tourism, Bhaderwah has got ample scope for adventure and snow tourism as well and they have been demanding that snow sports and other adventure activities should be projected and promoted to attract tourists round the year. “Bhaderwah can become a haven for adventure tourism and to tap this potential, we ... Read more

Azerbaijan Tourism Association (AZTA) and the Travel Agents Association of India (TAAI) have signed a Memorandum of Cooperation during the international tourism fair, SATTE 2018 held in Delhi. “This collaboration will boost mutual tourism exchange, as well will contribute to the development of economic relations between the two countries. Our association include hotels, travel agencies and airline companies. Azerbaijan’s national air carrier – AZAL is also one of our members. Furthermore, about 242 tourism companies and 110 hotels are our active members. Therefore, I hope our cooperation will be successful,” said Nahid Baghirov, Chairman of AZTA. Razeen Hasan of AZTA Travel ... Read more

February 2nd is considered World Wetlands Day. This day marks the date of the adoption of the Convention on Wetlands on 2 February 1971, in the Iranian city of Ramsar on the shores of the Caspian Sea. Each year since 1997, the Ramsar Secretariat has provided materials to help raise public awareness about the importance and value of wetlands. The international theme for World Wetlands Day 2018 is ‘Wetlands for a sustainable urban future’. The Ramsar Convention Secretariat has developed a number of downloadable World Wetlands Day materials for 2018, including posters, infographics, Power Point presentations, fact sheets and a t-shirt ... Read more

Photo Courtesy: kumarakom.com Kumarakom, in Kerala, is selected to develop as one of the 10 iconic tourist destinations in India, which is presented in the annual Union Budget for 2018-19, by Finance Minister Arun Jaitley. He said this can be achieved by adopting a holistic approach of development with the support of the private sector. During the budget announcement on February 1, the minister said that the Central Government would like to convert 10 popular tourist destinations into iconic and model destinations. These iconic places will be developed as model destinations with the help of private partnership. Taj Mahal, Fatehpur Sikri, ... Read more

It was a proud moment for Subash Palekar, a farmer in Belora village in the district of Amaravati, Maharashtra, after winning Padmashri for his Zero Budget Natural Farming Model back in 2016. Subash Palekar, a BSc graduate in Agriculture, was known as ‘Krishi ka Rishi’ by fellow farmers. Palekar had always kept this in mind that  using chemical fertilizers is not only bad for health but also result in a drop in the yield. Palekar religiously researched about the concept of zero farming and only after 3 long years of research he could find that the chemical fertilizers are spoiling ... Read more

Finance Minister Arun Jaitley delivered his fifth budget today. Here’s a look at what’s in it for tourism… Proposal to develop 10 prominent tourist destinations as Iconic tourism destinations and two tourist areas under the Swades Darsan – Rs 1100 crore Proposal to develop 10 prominent tourist destinations as Iconic tourism destinations and the development of 3 heritage sites under Prasad Project – Rs 150 crore To continue the light and sound shows in 5 protected sites and to complete the development works to improve basic infrastructure in 4 ports, 25 railway stations and 3 station in the Konkan belt ... Read more

Finance Minister Arun Jaitley delivered his fifth budget today. Here’s a look at what’s in it for tourism… Proposal to develop 10 prominent tourist destinations as Iconic tourism destinations Govt is developing infrastructure in border areas, which is expected to help tourism in the boarder areas Proposed construction of new tunnel in Se-La Pass in Arunachal Pradesh to promote tourism and facilitate medical needs Proposal to develop 10 prominent tourist destinations as Iconic tourism destinations Airport capacity to be increased 5 times; 56 unserved airport and 31 unserved helipads in country to be connected Proposed redevelopment of 600 major railway ... Read more

Early drafts of the Doodle Search engine giant Google today honoured Kamala Das with a doodle. The Doodle by artist Manjit Thapp celebrates Kamala Das on the publication date of her autobiography, “My Story,” released in 1976. “Today we celebrate poet and author Kamala Das. “Das’s life and work had a boldness and shape-shifting quality, whether it was the many genres she wrote in or the various languages in which she expressed herself. She was determined to live life on her own terms, resisting labels such as “feminist” and choosing different names for herself over the course of her life,” ... Read more

The silver jubilee edition of SATTE, South Asia’s leading travel and tourism exhibition, kick starts at the Le Meridien in New Delhi. THe evnt was inaugurated by Chief Guest KJ Alphons, Minister for Tourism (I/C), Govt. of India, along with TS Rawat, Chief Minister, Uttarakhand;  Amitabh Kant, CEO, NITI Aayog; Faiyaz Koya, Minister for Industry, Trade and Tourism Fiji; I Gde Pitana Dy. Tourism Minister, Indonesia;  Bo Keun Choi, Senior Officer, Regional Programme for Asia and the Pacific, UNWTO; Subhash Goyal, Member, National Tourism Advisory Committee; Navin Berry, Founder, SATTE; Michael Duck, Executive Vice President, UBM Asia and Yogesh Mudras, Managing ... Read more

Abu Dhabi welcomed over 3, 50,000 Indian visitors last year. With new additions like Louvre Museum, Abu Dhabi is expecting more millennial visitors from India. Keeping this in mind, Department of Culture and Tourism – Abu Dhabi (DCT) has entered into a partnership with GoFro, India’s foremost online holiday marketplace. DCT partnered with GoFro, to leverage company’s unique travel marketplace model with packages and customised travel option from all leading travel companies of the country. The partnership will enable travellers to get travel advice from local travel experts from Abu Dhabi and help them to customize travel. “Travellers are now ... Read more

From March 2018, it would not be possible to spot a hookah parlour in Maharashtra as the state government is planning to ban the same. Following the recent fire at two restaurants in Kamala Mills area that claimed 14 lives, the state government has moved a proposal to ban hookah parlours by initiating an amendment in the Cigarettes and Other Tobacco Products Act (COTPA). It wanted a provision of imprisonment of three years and a fine of Rs 50,000. Though the government was trying to regulate the law and make it a bit more stringent looking at the revenues these ... Read more